The Microsoft Gaming Zone contains 113 games (as of May 06 2001), including the massively successful Asheron's Call, developed by Turbine. Obviously MSN have the coinage to back any projects, which includes the upcoming Asheron's Call 2, which is still in early alpha stages, and has no officially finalised name.

Alongside Asheron's Call, there are several other games which are unique to this site, and if you are a fan of the Ages of Empire series then this is probably the best place to find a large amount of similar minded players waiting to start a game. You can check here for a full list of their current games available for play, most of which are free with a small selection of pay-to-play games available. Naturally you'll need to set up a user to join any of the games, and then it's clear sailing.

Underlight is a game which relies on the imagination of the players and contains no computer-controlled characters. It's prime requisite is Roleplay, and has a shockingly addictive quality. Though perhaps underpopulated at the moment, especially at certain times of the day, it is currently run by volunteers and is hoping for an investor enabling it to be rebuilt to match the current MMORPG's in development. If you should know a company or individual who could meet the investment needs of this brilliant game (several million US dollars, or thereabouts), please do contact the developers, Lyra studios. The game can be massively successful on a market which has the demand, and Underlight is a game which can fill that market niche, if only the backing can be found.

Originally released to the public on MPlayer in 1998, Underlight's main population base consists of a loyal following of Dreamers (players) who have mostly been with Underlight for several years. It can seem a little daunting to understand at first, as Underlight involves alot of teaching and learning, but it is well worth the time.

The four biggest attractions of the game are the Roleplaying, the Player Interaction, the Rich Game History and the planes and scenery within the game, which you can easily find yourself relaxing and viewing to unburden the stresses of real life, often exploring for several hours at a time.

Lyra Studios Contacts» (E-Mail) General - (E-Mail) Human Resources - Please Visit here for Lyra's job opportunities page.

After nearly closing due to running costs exceeding income, BarrysWorld was pulled from the increasing flotsam of their sinking ship by Electronics Boutique, who stepped in with sacks of loot. Perhaps EB were the heroic game-lovers who could not bear to see BarrysWorld flounder, or perhaps they knew a potential business opportunity when they saw it. Either way, EB have kept BarrysWorld alive and well, turning it into an even better service. The downside is that BW have announced their service will run at a small fee to cover company overheads, but is that entirely necassery? Perhaps. After all, their service was about to end because of this, but then there are other services who get by just fine, not forgetting BarrysWorld has been going for several years already. Still, as much a pity that it is to be forced into comitting to a fee-based service, and we know they would keep the service free if they could, I believe it will make BW exceptional in the gaming community. Money usually does have that effect, doncha know :)

BarrysWorld is mainly aimed towards FPS (First Person Shooter) type games, though you may occasionally find those of other genres in the frey. There really are alot of options open to gamers, as can be seen in the screenshot. Some options include BW's own ISP service, or 25Mb of free webspace if you want to start up a Gaming site. It's also worth noting that servers are public, bookable, private, clan-based and so forth, so along with leagues and clan tables, there is something for everyone, not to mention a database of patches, updates, guides, reviews/previews etcetera. To get a comprehensive list of all games and servers on offer it's best to sign up and log in, otherwise you can get a abbreviated list here.

Planetarion was first opened to the public on the 1st of February 2000 to begin Round 1 of this browser-based space strategy-war game. Now with Round 4 just recently underway, changes have occured and galaxies have started anew, ready to crush or be crushed. Each player has control of one planet, of which up to 25 can occupy any single galaxy, so teamwork within each Galaxy is of great importance, otherwise you may find your Galaxy being overrun by a group of players looking to cash in on your resources and asteroids.

With servers based in Norway, the time is set at CEST (+1 GMT), and all actions within the game run at real-time speed, so constructing a new factory which might take 12 ticks (12 hours), means that it's a game where you should log in a few times a day, set orders/construction/research, check messages etc. then log back in later to check on things. Of course, you don't have to log in, and there is a Vacation mode if you plan to be away for more than 72 hours, which will leave your planet untouched until you get back. Planetarion is free and will remain so, though PA will be opening a version soon which you can pay for if you want a guarunteed service with lots of added extras and graphics for broadband users. The money raised with this will mostly be used to keep both versions going strong, so benefits all. The current version you can play is the version which will remain free. You can get a full report from Christian Lassem (aka Spinner) here. This is a great game to play if you always find yourself with a spare few minutes here and there, and is very low maintenance. Well worth getting your friends together for, if you are able, especially as you can create your own galaxy with a password so you can decide who to let join it.

With the recent near-closure of BarrysWorld, one of the UK's leading online gaming sites, all other gaming sites have come under pressure by the apparent difficulty in maintaining these services for (basically) free. Wireplay, however, has done a fantastic job in maintaining excellent game servers for the public to enjoy with no fees, covering costs through sparse web side advertisements (certainly no more advertisements than any other site, all of which unobtrusive), but mainly by their online shop, which is as good a place as any in the UK to order the best games out there. The gaming servers are located in the UK and in Australia. For those wishing to pick which servers, you can go to http://www.wireplay.com and click on the appropriate icon. Otherwise click here for the UK servers, or here for the Australian servers.

With 100 games listed (as of 9 May 2001), Wireplay's servers are of an excellent standard, with excellent ping times which are very consistant. One of the positive efforts which Wireplay make is having various teams working constantly on all aspects of the service. One such team works on keeping one step ahead of any cheating in the game, for which the servers patch your version automatically when you play, and I have to say I never once noticed this happening when logging in. It's completely unobtrusive, and cheats are just about non-existent. Certainly if any do pop up, they're dealth with immediately, so it never becomes an issue. Another nice feature is that you can just about always find an [Admin] volunteer playing on the servers, who has plenty of abilities ranging from kicking a forewarned trouble-making player, through to permanently banning a user. You can also use Wireplay as an ISP, which can also help with ping times if for example your ISP is in a far off land, and finding a server to join is fast and straightforward for people of every experience level. For anyone worried about playing a game for the first time, or needing a challenge, there are servers set up for newbies through to hardened veterans, as well as clan and league servers.